Memon urges mediamen to help people accept will of masses
By Saad Saud

ISLAMABAD—Caretaker Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Nisar A. Memon on Friday urged the mediamen to help create an atmosphere in the days till general polls that prepares people to accept the will of the masses expressed through ballot on February 18.He was talking to the editor of the national dailies who had a detailed meeting with the minister.
Memon said President Pervez Musharraf had warned against pre-judging the election results, raising undue hopes and resorting to violence during or after the polls. He said the political parties should call workers conventions after the polls and try to analyse the will of the masses instead of rejecting it.
Nisar Memon to a query said all countries be they friendly or not should keep off the elections as any undesired interference will affect the future relations of Pakistan with that country. He said Pakistan was never was and will never be weaker in its relations with any country.
He said the Conferences with the theme ‘Unite for Elections’ were held in all four provincial capitals in which working Journalists were engaged to work out guidelines for making the Elections 2008, free fair, transparent and Peaceful. He said the groups of journalists participating in these seminars made their recommendations which were circulated to the concerned departments.
He said these related to security passes, advertisement contents, security of the local media, statistics of the election commission and volunteers. He said arrangements had been made in accordance with the demand for deployment of rangers and police. He said there are 15,000 volunteers in Sindh and 50,000 in the Punjab who are committed and security cleared people.
Talking about the Kutcha areas of Sindh, he said these were only five percent and that cannot play a major role. Talking about responsible reporting, Nisar Memon said non-representative foreign NGOs like PILDAT had been given more coverage than was due to such non entities.
He said International Republican Institute (IRI) was commonly known being against Pakistan due to the support of president Bush to Pakistan but IRI surveys had been given wide coverage on front pages by the newspapers.
He said the government version had either been ignored altogether or was given very insignificant space on inside pages. The norm of making the news balanced was ignored. He said personal wishes and whims were being reported as news items. Nisar Memon said in these near-election-days, media should report positively about anything related to terrorism. Similarly, he said the reporting of election results should be careful. This is the time to give hope to the nation and help it come out of despair, he said adding, “let us unite and not divide our people”.
Secretary Information Anwar Mahmood, talking to the editors denied there were any no-go-areas for local observers and mediamen. However, he said the foreign observers were asked to avoid going to sensitive areas for their own security.
He also referred to a comment that came from a political analyst on a TV channel saying as to how can the president influence the election results now when the election 2002 were not influenced by the president when he was the chief of the army staff and the chief executive. He said the results of the election 2002 gave the margin of a single seat to the prime minister nominated by the president to form his government. Punjab minister for information, Mubashir Luqman said that provincial administration had requested for the lists of the election observers to know their areas of interest and facilitate them.
He said there was complete cooperation between the federal and the provincial governments. Earlier, the minister offered condolences over the death of Dr. Chishti Mujahid.